US actor Harry Dean Stanton dead at 91

Harry Dean Stanton, whose grizzled looks and acclaimed acting talent earned him a prolific Hollywood career playing mainly supporting roles, died at a Los Angeles hospital on Friday. He was 91 years old.

He "passed away from natural causes" at Cedars-Sinai medical center, according to his agent John S Kelly.

Despite over 150 television and film appearances spanning six decades, including roles in the "Alien," "The Green Mile," "Pretty in Pink" and "The Avengers," Stanton was not a household name -- though his weathered, drooping face is instantly recognizable.

One of his rare leading roles came in the 1984 road movie "Paris, Texas" where his turn as a father suffering from amnesia helped director Wim Wenders win the 1984 Palme D'Or.

A close friend of Hollywood luminaries Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn and Marlon Brando, the drinker and smoker worked with David Lynch on TV's "Twin Peaks."

"The great Harry Dean Stanton has left us. There went the great one," the filmmaker Lynch wrote in a statement posted on Twitter.

Stanton's more recent work includes playing polygamist patriarch Roman Grant in TV's "Big Love" and a voice role in animated feature "Rango" with Johnny Depp.

A keen musician, he also founded the eclectic "The Harry Dean Stanton Band" known for its mix of mariachi, jazz and other genres.

Source: AFP